Not good news for President Obama, according to the new surveys conducted by Dartmouth College about one of the most important political battlegrounds:
Romney beats the president in a head-to-head matchup by 8 points, 47 percent to 39 percent. Obama’s poor showing against Romney is also the product of his weak approval rating in the Granite State, where only 36 percent of voters there give him positive marks. That compares to a 45 percent approval rating for Obama in New Hampshire in a similar poll one year ago.
But it’s not all bad news for the president: though losing big to Romney, he soundly defeats every other potential GOP candidate the poll tested, including former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (by 8 points), former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (by 16 points), Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (by 19 points), businessman Donald Trump (by 22 points) and former GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin (by 27 points).
